The Distance migraine
by julia bebop
Summary: the doctor still can't get over rose. Mathra is at her wits end, but his past will help out get over his loss.


The Distance migraine

By Julia Macgregor

A usually sight of a blue British police call box from the late 1950's spinning in outer reaches of space was pretty common for the owner and companion of the box. Inside of the tiny box was a real surprise and treat. The inside was beyond scope for most intelligent life. There were a complex mix of things, devices and tools which made the ship seemed like a large treasure box than just a simple time traveling mechanize.

In one corner of the control area of the ship called the Tardis, a young man sat a simple, yet very heavily wore desk. His chin rested on the lip of the table. His dark brown eyes were fixed in a pained expression that he had never experienced in a long time. A tea towel was draped over his carefully combed brown hair. This was the first time he, the last surviving being of his home planet Gallifrey had a headache. He warned himself time and time again not to drink spiced coffee. The heat from the coffee made his head ache with the force of a ten ton truck.

A young black woman, who was his traveling companion for the time being, came up to him and asked, "You want an aspirin?"

Then word aspirin sounded both foreign, yet relief at the monument. He winced, before saying, "Hmm, Martha?"

With a face drawn up in corner, Martha Jones asked, "You want one…I take one when I get a headache."

"No…" the great time lord sighed, rolling his eyes. There was something else in this head ache. He wondered in the strange feeling of pain there was a tinge of guilt. That surprised him. Why was he of all creatures of the known galaxy, feel guiltily. For what, he pondered deeply. Was it he landed on earth on the fateful day after the US president, John Kennedy was killed by a gunman's bullet. He knew it and hated the outcome. Was it for the times he had innocent person on board of his great spaceship and did not give them a chance not to climb on board. Was it for one earth maiden that not only stolen his hearts, yet gave freedom to experience things that he was never ever dare too. He smiled sadly and murmured, "Rose!"

The young black woman was a little surprised and asked, "Rose?"

He raised his head a little and sighed painfully.

"Are you thinking of her again, Doctor?" Martha sighed, rolling her own eyes.

There was no way of hiding the fact he still had feelings for the one who had stolen his heart. How strange to have the human emotion called love. He puzzled over since Rose Tyler ran into the man who called himself the Doctor. He was what now nearly hitting the one thousand year mark. He should be a little more careful in his adventures. He joked with Rose as they were on an orbiting satellite near the last of the black holes about getting a house and settling down. He knew that he was pulling Rose's leg for a little while. Yet, what was like to be settled down. To have a real job and earn a paycheck, that was something the Doctor never had before. Living on the edge like he did was very normal to him. The other lifestyle was a still a mystery to him.

"Why even bother with the past!" Martha asked with a gentle tone of voice. She knew about his long life.

"I can't forget the past," the doctor snapped back. An old ache, an old self popped up from nowhere and made the Doctor a little crabby. Here was a perfect idea of not going back to set things right. Yet, he was the Doctor. He had taken upon himself to be the one who wanted to fix things right. It was inside of him with very regeneration before. Why now, that he had to fight with himself. Was he so blind that he needed outside force like Martha to wake him up? He sat up with a jolt of melancholy and anger. "The past is me!"

"And the future!" Martha growled back. Martha Jones was a savvy and sassy student of medicine. She did not take crap from people at certain times. She had used her mind in giving right back with words instead of fists. She knew she had a raw nerve with the Doctor. She had to make peace with him or no trip home. She rolled her eyes a little as she nibbled at her lower lip. The word sorry was going to stick in her gut until she forced it out. "Sorry…I didn't know what the real story behind you and her were!"

"And?" he looked up at Martha. There was nothing like a glare or blank stare in his eyes. The doctor was just at loss for everything. He had a slight taste of it before. "Never mind…Martha. I'm going to land soon!"

It was that quick and automatic that Martha was puzzled at the Doctor. What was going on with him? Maybe there was something on the inside needing to break through.

Leela had looked at the moon for many years now. She remembered the long trips in strange looking machine with even stranger looking man with a long scarf around his neck.

She had been sitting on the grass, eating a peach. It felt right for her to doing that since her marriage had been a long one. She had a distance memory of a strange man coming from the gods. He was called the Doctor. His wondrous blue box made for a dozen of lifetimes full with curious travels. He was different also as he spoke and milled about in his traveling box. He wondered what ever happened to the Doctor. Where did he go and why he did not come back for her.

She took a bite when she raised her head a little to see the large shatterproof glass dome above her. She loved the clear nights in the spaceport. Her mind would wonder a little to the time in her life. She had been on extra ordinary trip that she would have a hard time in explaining to others.

The idea of traveling in time and space was not even dreamed of in her tribe back home on an unnamed planet. She needed up a space station thousands of year and miles away from home.

As if it was a wish, Leela had heard strange and wonderfully familiar sounds. It sounded like the wind being sucked into a large vacuum. Her head started to move slowly around to see where the noise was coming from. With a small smile, Leela had stood up from where she was sitting at. She knew in her mind that he had come for her at last.

Leela was in for a large shock. Leela was drawn to the blue police box with her childlike curiously. She knew it was him, the Doctor who was behind the door.

"I think we've stopped!" Martha said as she looked at the monitor. She realized it was not earth again. It was a strange looking space port she was staring at. She wondered if the Doctor sent her to another place that he and Rose visited one another time. she sighed, rolled her eyes and said, "Where are we?"

"DOCTOR?" a voice called out.

"What?" Martha asked as she heard the strange voice. It sounded very much human. She peered up at the monitor near the controls. She uttered a little opened mouthed as she noticed Leela standing outside of the Tardis. Leela was dressed a flat green rigger's outfit.

At first the Doctor was puzzled. Why was there a human who knew him, who knew the Tardis? It was making him try to think of another time in his long and distance past. He had to give a hard and long stare at her. Leela was equally surpassed at the sight of much younger man who stepped out the TARDIS. She was expecting a man with fuzzy brown hair and a long trailing scarf. Words seemed to escape Leela's mouth before she even got a chance to say them.

"Who are you?" Leela asked the youngish Doctor.

"Oh…" he said with a raised eye brow. He was thinking the same lines. He had to think where he saw her before. Regeneration was hard on not only the body, on the mind as well. He glanced down at the ground. Then he smiled in a haphazardly way and said, "I'm the Doctor!"

At first, Leela was not only surprised, she was downright horror struck at this stranger who called himself the Doctor. She became very angry in a heartbeat. She gaped with a snarled lip, "You are not the Doctor!"

It was going to be a verbal game of anger as the Doctor snapped back in self defiance, "Am I to the Doctor!"

"You don't look at all like my Doctor!" she tossed her anger back at this stranger.

"What?" he gaped in surprise? He had to give his memories a good thrust to the forefront. How many times did he re-generate.

"He was tall with fuzzy hair," Leela said as she began to stand on her toes. She waved her one hand over her head to show how tall the fourth doctor was.

"That's tall!" the Doctor nodded. He wondered in his past that this other form of his body was.

"Yea…are we talking eight feet?" Martha sassed as she tried to reason with Leela.

"Martha…I'm not that tall!" the Doctor chided her. Martha did have a very strong imagination. The doctor was not going to let her run away with anything goofy idea of his height.

"Sorry…Doctor!" Martha giggled feverously. She flashed a smile to ease his ego down a lit.

Leela was quite curious and asked lots of questions. She wondered who Martha was. She had seemed people like her before. She said with a weary gaze, "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry, have I seen you before?" the doctor said with a puzzled stare into a formal face.

"This is getting confusing!" Martha said.

She gave Martha a hard stare as well. It was like she had a hard time getting over her first shock of finding her friend the doctor had changed.

"Have I seen you before!" the doctor wondered out loud for the second time. He began to rub his chin with a hand.

"This is getting confusion!" uttered Martha as she did her own wondering on her own. Was this going to be an all night event? She gave herself a check of her surroundings. This was a space station. The night sky was dark and starred filled.

Somewhere else into the same space station, Ace was finishing up her job. She had been researching bio-explosives. She had been a strange thought for a longest of time. She wondered if she had been home sick. She had been playing solider for so long, she took a bringing job as test sciences for a backwater planet. She had no idea what the pay was going to be like or how long she was going to end up.

A shooting star whizzed past her window in the lab she had been working at. She quickly made a childish wish for another chance meeting of the Doctor. How long has it been since she clapped eyes on him or the TARDIS. She had a test tube in her hand. For her there nothing was inside.

"Ace?" a small voice was coming from a doorway at the other end of the lab. A small pinkness-bluish creature with long fur was entering the lab. It was from the Vixa where this creature was originally born. It had traveled everywhere. One day I decided to end up at the same research lab as Ace was.

"Yea…Yinny?" Ace turned to look her firmed and long time helper at the lab. She was still smiling after a long day of work.

"Are you going to be at the cantina?" Yinny allseed as he hobbled across the floor. He came to the table where Ace was cleaning up her job.

"Maybe?" she said before sucking at her teeth. She knew that there was more work after she had gotten started at the lab. She died not mind it at first. She had always a clear mind of what she wanted to get done. Yet, why did she have a feeling that soemeone was out there to visit her. She had no body to think about for a long time. She was just there working. Then, one day in her past, Ace found herself standing in front of a man who had traveled to stranger lands and see so much. Even stranger still was the fact he had traveled in an old blue police box from earth. He told her while she had been with him on his many trips through time and space that he came from Gallifrey and he was a Time Lord. It seemed as soon as she grew to adder the Doctor she was pushed into leave by unseen rule of life. It was time to grow up and put away your toys, it order her do.

There were voices coming from the hallway. Ace thought nothing of the voices. She believed they were just weeks who were talking in the hallway. She had to finish out her paper work.

"Martha...pleases!" a voice asked with an air of surprise. It sounded male and full of wonder.

Ace stopped herself from going anything further; she had a feeling of the past coming to met her once again. Where did she hear that time? Who was talking to her and only her? It frightened her at the same time; she wanted to see who it was.

"Ace...?" Yinny asked his bleu eyebrow was raised in concern. He had never see the expression on Ace's face like she was displaying mow.

"Oh...it's nothing...really Yinny!" she forced herself from exploding with past feelings. She wanted to run and find the Doctor. How long had she been waiting for him. She was no longer a child. Yet, she felt now like a child at Christmas. She was kneading her pen into the palm of her hand.

"And further more!" the man said as he stopped at the opened door way. He stopped to give the once over with his eyes to the room. He said a little opened mouthed, "Nice and typical!"

"What?" Martha asked. She noticed the bluish creature that was standing next to Ace. She was surprised to see the creature. She said with wide-eyed glance, "What's that, doctor?"

"It's an alien!" the Doctor shook his head for second. Then, he entered the room with a smile. "Hello...I'm the Doctor!"

"The doctor?" Ace said. Her face had changed after she turned around to see the stranger who called himself the doctor entered the room. She wonders if this was a bad trick to make her lose her memories. She huffed coldly, "Are not the Professor!"

Surprised, both Doctor and Martha said as they glanced at each other, "Professor?"

"Yea..." Ace managed to say before jerking her head for a quick scan of the Doctor's frame before she blinked her eyes. "There was a guy who traveled in a strange, but old fashion looking box. He called it the TARDIS!"

"Yes...that's my ship!" the doctor smiled with a warm grin.

"No, you are not the Professor!" ace repeated herself. She had casted a weary at the man who was calming himself to be a time-lord.

"Then, give me the letters and what the stand for!" Leela smiled to herself. She had thought he was going to be tripped up by her question. Only the Doctor ken what the letters in Tardis meant to this partially man. She had entered the room after the Doctor and Martha entered the room.

"It's Time and Relative Dimension in Space," the Doctor said with even batting an eye lash. He tried to smile back at the two former time traveling companions. He smiled weakly as he stood with his arms at his sides. "T.A.R.D.I.S."

"Are you sure you are not the Master?" Ace asked with a raised eye brow. There was a feel which came from the pit of fear in Ace's soul. Why did she feel this strange fear? It was like the many times she had faced monsters before with the Doctor. At first she was always all GunHo with the fighting. After a few times, she just wanted to go back and have a good simple life, free from traveling and nightmares. She needed up at where she was at.

"Good grief!" Martha sighed, rolling her eyes at Ace.


End file.
